Analysis

Across the globe, societies are increasingly transitioning away from a grey palate and moving towards ‘greener’ tendencies. This propensity for change is a welcome progression as many global environmental challenges already pose enormous risks for populations around the world.

At the end of 2015 the world was full of hope. After 23 years of postponing, staling and log-rolling, we finally had a global agreement on climate change. Even countries that had long been skeptical about global warming, like the US and China, were ready to take action. The world community promised to keep global warming well below 2°C. It finally looked like states, citizens and businesses would be taking the right path.

Brexiteers could not have dreamed of a more propitious Zeitgeist for their campaign: the recent Euro crisis, the hasten influx of refugees and migrants, the Islamic State’s attacks in Paris and Brussels, the March 2016 EU-Turkish deal on conditional visa-free allowances, the Prime Minister’s father’s involvement in the Panama Papers affair, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s withdrawal of some of his key proposals from the UK budget.

Facing the forthcoming parliamentary elections this Sunday, Spain continues to be immersed in a moment of uncertainty and ideological redefinition, with little time for reflection and even less for reaction.

I expected a lot from Varoufakis’s economics for teenagers. I believe that basics of economics and entrepreneurship must be part of the high school curricula (possibly even of the last grades of the elementary school). Citizens who possess basic economic knowledge could more easily understand manipulations performed by politicians (when salaries and pensions are cut to finance party employment in the public sector); they would know that market prices depend on other people’s tastes and ability to pay, and not on the nature of the capitalist who produce them; or they would know that there is no such a thing as free meal – when the government gives you something for free, someone always had to pay for it.